While The Walking Dead fans are still reeling from Beth's brutal death in Sunday's midseason finale, AMC is making big moves on the TWD spinoff series. Actor Cliff Curtis — best known to TV viewers for his roles in Trauma, Gang Related, and Missing — has been cast as Sean Cabrera, the character who will act as the companion series' version of TWD leader Rick Grimes.

New Zealand native Curtis, 46, also has an eclectic movie résumé, including Three Kings, Bringing Out the Dead, The Insider, Training Day, Whale Rider, Live Free or Die Hard, Push, The Last Airbender, and Blow, in which he played Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
The spinoff series, which will be set in the same postapocalyptic world Rick Grimes and friends are maneuvering through, albeit in a different location, has no official title yet, but The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline report that Curtis's Sean is a divorced teacher who is "a good man trying to do right by everyone in his life."

AMC will not confirm character or storyline details (or the show's working title, Cobalt), but The Hollywood Reporter reports that Sean has a son with his ex-wife, Andrea, and that his female counterpart in the series is a character named Nancy Tomkins, a guidance counselor at the school where Sean was a teacher.

The Nancy role has not yet been cast, but her children have: British actor Frank Dillane (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and In the Heart of the Sea) will play Nick, who has dealt with drug problems, and Australian actress Alycia Debnam Carey will play Ashley, described as Nancy's "ambitious" daughter. Carey also had a role in Galyntine, the Greg Nicotero-directed sci-fi drama pilot that AMC passed on earlier this year.

TVLine.com reported in September that the Cobalt cast will also include Sean's son Cody, a rebel "known as the angriest kid in town," and a 40-something "somewhat wilted flower child" named Andrea Chapman, who is still reeling from a bad marriage (and who sounds a little like a mash-up of TWD characters Carol and Andrea).

Other speculation about the spinoff includes the suggestion that the story will be set in the early days of the apocalypse, before walkers overran the world.

Does that mean there's a chance Sean's group and Rick's group could meet up eventually?

The companion series pilot, co-written and executive produced by TWD universe creator Robert Kirkman and former Sons of Anarchy (and current Marco Polo) producer Dave Erickson, will also count TWD executive producers Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert as executive producers, with Erickson as the showrunner.

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The zombie apocalypse is spreading to the Left Coast!One of the key unanswered questions surrounding AMC’s in-the-works Walking Dead spinoff — where will it be set? — can now be revealed.TVLine has learned exclusively that the potential series (the pilot of which will be shot in early 2015) will be based in… Los Angeles.Yep, the zombies are going Hollywood.AMC promised that TWD: 2.0 will shed light on a new, previously unseen corner of the zombie apocalypse — perhaps one where the living outnumber the undead. “Almost from the beginning of The Walking Dead on AMC, fans have been curious about what is going on in the zombie apocalypse in other parts of the world,” said AMC President Charlie Collier back in September.It’s unclear if the show will actually be shot in L.A., or another city that could double as the City of Angels (i.e. Vancouver).As TVLine previously reported, there’s buzz that the offshoot — penned by showrunner Dave Erickson and TWD creator Robert Kirkman — will be a prequel of sorts, one that would chronicle the early days of the epidemic and the effort to contain it.The still-growing cast includes Cliff Curtis (Gang Related), Frank Dillane (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince‘s Tom Riddle) and Aussie actress Alycia Debnam Carey (McLeod’s Daughters).An AMC rep declined to comment or confirm anything beyond ordering the pilot.

AMC is looking to tell a completely different story with its Walking Dead companion series.While the drama — currently in the pilot stage — has been referred to by the network as a "companion" series, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that it is indeed a prequel. The project, also known as Cobalt, takes place in Los Angeles at the dawn of the zombie apocalypse. For non-comics readers, Robert Kirkman's graphic novels have never explored the origins of the zombie apocalypse. Sources tell THR that an early script features one character who briefly appeared during a key season one episode.Kirkman, who created The Walking Dead comic series, is co-writing the pilot with Dave Erickson (Sons of Anarchy). They'll exec produce alongside Walking Dead's Gale Anne Hurd and Dave Alpert. Erickson will serve as showrunner, while Adam Davidson will direct the pilot.Here's what we know so far about Cobalt. Bookmark this page and we'll continue to update it as more information becomes available. Cliff Curtis (Gang Related) stars as Sean Cabrera, a teacher who shares a son with his ex-wife, Andrea. The character is described as a good man trying to do right by everyone in his life.

AMC has set “Gone Girl” scene-stealer Kim Dickens as the female lead for the upcoming “Walking Dead” companion series pilot, Variety has confirmed.She’ll star alongside Cliff Curtis in the spinoff, which will take place in the same universe as AMC’s blockbuster zombie hit, but in a new location.Dickens is believed to be playing guidance counselor Nancy Tompkins: “a thirtysomething single mom to two kids, Nancy looks like the girl next door, but there’s an edge to her.” Frank Dillane and Alycia Debnam Carey were previously announced and are set to play Nancy’s children — Nick, Nancy’s screwed up teenage son who is too old to stay home, but too scared to flee; and Ashley, Nancy’s mostly level-headed teenage daughter, whose ambition is in direct proportion to her older brother’s failures. AMC declined to confirm character details.In addition to her role in David Fincher’s “Gone Girl,” Dickens was a regular on HBO’s “Deadwood,” with stints on “Friday Night Lights,” “Treme” and “Sons of Anarchy.” She is represented by Gersh.EPs on the new show include “Walking Dead” exec producers Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert. The series is produced by AMC Studios. Dave Erickson co-created and co-wrote the pilot with Kirkman, and serves as executive producer and showrunner.Variety’s sister site, Deadline, first reported Dickens’ casting.

"The Walking Dead" just got crazier.According to a report by Nerdist, a character from the "Walking Dead" spinoff is coming to the original series. The character is said to have a six-episode story arc on the next season of "Walking Dead" and will then be seen in the new show.The spinoff is slotted to be a prequel to the series, so it is not yet known how the new character will meet Rick Grimes and his group. But, as Uproxx points out, flashbacks would allow AMC to bring back past "Walking Dead" characters. And there are definitely a lot to choose from.In addition to this news, there has been an outbreak of character rumors about the spinoff recently.

Pub Member / Supporter

Oh crap,mods please change the title of this thread to "Fear the Walking Dead." You can probably also combine the other thread started about this,"Walking Dead spin-off,what we know so far" if it's in this folder(that thread was started by whitewolf8214).

Pub Member / Supporter

I "FEAR" that the over exposure of the Walking Dead shows and Fear the Walking Dead spinoff series ,will kill off the entire genre much sooner than if they just left it one show. But I guess we are lucky it wasn't on Cbs or we would have NCIS -Walking Dead Georgia and Csi -Walking Dead L.A. or Csi Cyber Walking Dead.

First, it's not on a broadcast network, where there's a half dozen NCIS, and CSI which I've never seen.
I never expected to like a zombie show, but watch a season one marathon and got hooked.
I kept asking why there's nothing during winter, then it occurred to me they could spin off crews, writers and directors to have versions of TWD all year long.
Strike while the iron is hot.
Then there's syndication.

I'm not afraid. With enough time and a good enough budget, I think this show has the potential to improve upon the original series. After 5 seasons, they have a sense of what worked and what didn't. The backstory mythology is well established. And a strong fan base will ensure good enough ratings to pour some $$ into it. I also like that it's set in a sprawling urban area with a ton of resources and early in the apocalypse.

Supporting Founder

The fact that this show will not be following the comic will either help it out a lot or hurt it a lot. I'm not sure how comic fans will react to it. For me, reading the comic first makes the show better but I'm sure that's not the same for everyone.

I've never read a comic, we had TV, albeit black & white.
From what I understand, TWD is not holding the comics as canon. Rick, apparently lost a hand, Daryl doesn't exist, etc.
This is TV, not comics. So, an entire large group of people are having creative input.
Now, in another year they need TWD: Alaska, TWD:Texas, TWD: Portland,TWD:911

Supporting Founder

I've never read a comic, we had TV, albeit black & white.
From what I understand, TWD is not holding the comics as canon. Rick, apparently lost a hand, Daryl doesn't exist, etc.
This is TV, not comics. So, an entire large group of people are having creative input.
Now, in another year they need TWD: Alaska, TWD:Texas, TWD: Portland,TWD:911

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There are many differences but there are a lot of similarities too. You'd be surprised how many things are directly from the comic, word for word. Many of the plots are identical with just a few character tweaks. This is why I really enjoy both the comic and the show. I feel they go well together.

Since this is set in Los Angeles, it will be interesting to see if at some point the show explores the option of grabbing a boat and finding sanctuary in one of the relatively uninhabited Channel Islands a few miles off the coast of Southern California. A couple of them are nearly 100 square miles and offer spring water, sheep and other edible flora and fauna, and excellent fishing. Native Americans lived on the islands for centuries until the Spaniards enslaved them or killed them off. Today, there are small military installations on some of the islands, possibly offering a source of weapons and gear should the few dozen military personnel stationed there abandon the bases to fight the apocalypse plaguing the mainland. The rest of the islands form a national park, and only one island, Catalina, is a resort destination and has any kind of year-round resident population.

The TV show hasn't really addressed the idea of heading out to sea, though the concept drove the plot of the first TWD video game by Telltale.

There's an idea. BTW, the well walker grew gills, I don't know about the one anchored in the pond. Would walkers evolve into a shark behaving, or giant piranha type being?
Just thinking.
The military guys would rescue folks. But there's always something like the flu in the prison.

I kept saying, our group on TWD has barely left their neighborhood. I live in the sticks and drive 50 miles for a supermarket, Walmart, or McDonald's. So my neighborhood is rather large.
Now they finally left Georgia. But left no seed groups behind, much. The hospital folks I guess.

The only issue I have with spin-offs for series like this is that is splits the talent pool Unless this is done with a separate creative crew, it can lead to burn-out and more formulaic stories rather than real creativity. I fear the same thing will happen to TWD universe as what happened in the TNG Star Trek universe when DS9 spun off TNG. the quality of TNG in shows is seasons 6 and 7 were dismal in comparison to most of the rest of the series. DS9 started off okay and went down hill from there. I don't want to see this happen to TWD franchise.

THERE= a place. not here - THEIR= belongs to them - THEY'RE = short for "They Are". THEN = a point in time; not now. - THAN = used to compare things.
SomethingAFFECTSyou. You have an EFFECT on something. If something is LOOSE you might LOSE it. Your=belongs to "you" You're short for "you are"Dual=2 Duel=fight. If two sets of twin brothers have a gunfight, you have a DualDuel. MUTE=Silent, unable to talk. MOOT= No longer relevant or important. "A mute points out a moot point."

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